Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Paying Off The Mortgage Plan A, B, C...

I am a list-maker and a planner by nature. I hate the unknown even though practically everything is unknown. At least I like to pretend that I am in control. Since my mortgage repayment plan is on shaky ground at the moment, I decided to use my favorite amortization calculator at Get Rich Slowly's blog. I love playing around with the numbers to see how fast my mortgage can disappear. It's in an Excel format so I can only use it at work. Too bad. If I could use it at home I would probably have made Plan A thru Z by now.

My original plan, Plan A: Rent out my house full time while paying an extra $1200 each month, will pay off my mortgage in 3 years and 11 months from Jan 2008. Just for fun I decided to try Plan B: What would happen if I only rented out my house for one month every year at the height of the tourist season and lived in it the other 11 months. That would give me $4000 from rental income and I would still contribute an extra $400 each month. To my surprise that plan only added one year and 4 months on to my mortgage for a total of 5 years and 4 months. Of course this can be shortened if I can sell it before that.

I must admit that plan B is very tempting. Paved roads, plenty of water, a garage to park in, a full size fridge, trash pickup (oh trash pickup, how I miss thee!). There are many comforts that I miss. The downside, besides having to move out for a month every year, is that I would have to bring my cat. My cat hates my house. Maybe if I kept her in the master bedroom and opened the window blinds so she could see out she would like it better. The last time she was there she got so stressed out and dehydrated I had to take her to the vet who gave her intravenous fluids and I got a $400 bill which stressed me out. Having the cat there will make cleaning much harder when I move out for my guests too. Hopefully my guests aren't allergic.

Both plans, 3 yrs and 11 months or 5 yrs and 4 months, seem so far away. I like living in my RV but 4 more years? I'm having second thoughts. Perhaps I could sell the RV and put that $8 or $10 thousand towards my mortage. Hey, I think I just created Plan C!

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